All Game No Gossip

the columbia lions men’s basketball team concluded its decade with a last second loss to the great danes of suny albany. the dogs arrived at levien less than an hour and a half before tip off, having endured a southward trek from the capital in just miserable weather. nevertheless, they seemed rather sprightly as they surged out to a 9 – 0 advantage before the light blue realized a game was happening around them. their attentions having been gotten, our heroes played well for the rest of the first half and left the floor trailing by a mere point 25 – 26.

the two squads traded points over the first six and a half minutes of the second stanza.  still trailing by one, 38 – 39, columbia went on its best run of the night behind a couple of tai bibbs (17 points) three pointers and sophomore forward ike nweke’s (14 points, 12 rebounds) stalwart work on the blocks and boards.  over that exhilarating stretch, the lions crafted an eight point lead.  the final five and a half minutes (which took twenty five minutes to complete), however, were an exhausting slow bleed out by the light blue.  the albany squad patiently and flawlessly executed the only strategy available to a trailing team in such circumstances.  they prevented the lions from 1) consuming too much time on possessions by 2) fouling fairly quickly on each columbia trip downcourt and 3) scoring every time they had the ball.  now columbia’s response to this strategy needs must be to 1) run down the clock as much as possible on each possession  2) make their free throws when fouled and finally 3) make sure that albany did not score, especially from three point range.  the still nauseous feeling i cannot  shake finds its genesis in albany’s superior execution of its obligations.  an especially maddening outcome as the lions essentially accomplished two of its three goals.  they succeeded in getting the ball into the hands of mike smith, who did a competent job of eluding the suny defenders for a time and draining his free throws when fouled.  indeed, smith went 14 – 16 from the foul line on the night and did not miss the two he did during those five and half minutes from hell.  indeed, we can delay no longer in praising smith’s work for the evening – 28 points, 5 assists and, since he apparently had the time, 7 rebounds.  but columbia, which did a nice job for thirty five minutes limiting albany’s two leading scorers – guards cameron healy and ahmad clark, could not close them out when it mattered most.  they similarly failed to stymie sophomore forward malachi de sousa.  those three players let triples rain down from deep or got to the rim when columbia absolutely had to get a stop.  and so when young messr healy calmly cashed a free throw with less than a second to play – the great danes, to the exuberantly vociferous delight of their fans, completed their relentless comeback for a 67 – 66 victory.

albany shot 13 – 27 from beyond the arc and that 48% efficiency was enough to gainsay not only smith’s stellar turn but the exertions of tai bibbs (17 points on a couple of treys and some very athletic scores in transition) and ike nweke (14 points and 12 rebounds for the sophomore’s first double double).  the lions enjoyed a twelve point advantage from the charity stripe but their failure to more aggressively contest the perimeter gave that edge away.  or understood from the opposite perspective, their 6 – 20 from three point range cooked their goose.  though bibbs finally started to provide some points from the wing, jake killingworth continues to struggle to find his three point stroke.  the lions ball movement too often yielded nothing when killingworth hoisted a brick.  we don’t want to be too hard on jake, though, as he has done battled on the boards throughout the non-conference schedule as well as working terrifically on defense.  but his offensive struggles have highlighted how much the light blue misses gabe stefanini (and how much we yearn for his return by the start of ivy play) as well as the importance of first year jack forest, who has missed the last two games, to columbia’s attack.  the struggle against albany on the perimeter mirrored columbia’s woes up in hamilton, new york just before christmas in the dust up with colgate.  the red raiders shot 44% (14 – 32) from the arc as compared to the lions’ 7 – 26 (27%) effort.  that’s 21 points right there and pretty much explains the light blue’s 19 point loss.

coach engles escorts his team to orono tonight to tangle with maine’s black bears.  that freshman laden squad should provide the lions with their first road win of the season (we discount the romp over ccsu at mohegan sun as that was a neutral site victory) and perhaps cleanse their palates of the albany collapse.  but they have to close out on the perimeter!  never has our closing exhortation been more appropriate.

d up and peace out,

paulie b

the horrific halloween (more or less) news that 6′ 11″ difference making center patrick tape had elected to forgo his senior season in light blue shorts to preserve a year of graduate eligibility elsewhere, deflated allgame miserably. we were somewhat reinvigorated by the 3 – 5 record the lions cobbled together in november which should probably have been marginally better. 4 – 4 seems about right. tough twin 65 – 63 losses at lafayette and wake forest ought to have been split, at least. the lions stopped home briefly to whip a not good binghamton bearcats squad before departing for four road contests as part of the hall of fame tip off tournament. columbia was then literally muscled aside by three bigger, better teams in defending national champ virginia, metro area nyc big east st. john’s and finally the rider broncos. the widening margins in each of those battles testified to columbia’s vulnerabilty to bigger crews, but especially to bigger, quicker crews. their bounce back two game winning streak against central connecticut state and lehigh edged them towards respectability, but worries remain

very bright spot, first. as coach engles experiments with his rotations and substitutions, he has been able to count unreservedly on senior point guard mike smith who is averaging 21.4 ppg while dishing around 4.5 assists nightly. he has hit the boards, as well, when necessary. though he just dropped a season high 30 points on the lehigh mountain hawks in a 68 – 64 win, his best stat line to date to our eyes was the 20 point, 6 assist, 9 rebound effort in the slaughter on utopia parkway at st. john’s. smith only managed to play 37 minutes of that game, the kind of floor time he logs pretty much nightly.

the rest of the main performers’ efforts have been spotty. randy brumant has 10 blocks and 7 steals to date but is only grabbing 4 boards a night. he seemed comfortable defending in the post against binghamton’s 7′ 0″ center. but the big bearcat was pretty much planted at the top of the lane throughout the game. against rider’s more mobile bigs – 6′ 9″ tyere marshall and 6′ 8″ fred scott, brumant was forced to move and picked a full five fouls in just 13 minutes of battle. mobile ivy league centers like harvard’s chris lewis and penn’s a.j. brodeur are likely to wreck brumant. on the outside, junior guard tai bibbs and soph guard maka ellis have been finding basket rims mostly since day one. bibbs has shot 5 – 25 while ellis has been a marginally less awful 5 – 21. this duo athletic duo needs to become more reliably dangerous. their struggles have been compensated for, to some extent, by the contributions of first year jack forest. the 6′ 5″ guard has started to hit his share of three pointers and has shown some good quickness going to the basket. he has occasionally exasperated coach engles with less than sparkling decisions, but looks like he will learn how to play.

december’s challenges start this evening as the lions travel to delaware tonight to take on a fighting blue hen team that has posted a giddy 8 – 0 start. the birds are led by nate darling who is scoring at a 23.4 ppg game clip while draining 49% of his treys. he logs a smith like thirty seven and a half minutes per game. darling’s efforts are aided and abetted by justyn mutts who cashes 14 points nightly while clearing 9 rebounds. that duo has sparked a team that is winning its battles by an average of 15 points. a close loss against a quality opponent to start the month will be encouraging. an easier lift, up at bryant follows friday before visits to 6 – 0 duquesne on the ninth and 5 -3 colgate three days before christmas. the lions return to conclude the month and year against marist red foxes and the albany great danes. both those programs have been headaches for columbia recently.

so, though we enter the holiday hubbub less exuberantly than we might wish, we remain defiant and await the refinements in combinations and performances that will deliver the light blue to league play ready to contend for a tournament berth. those of us lucky enough to have looked up on thanksgiving night were rewarded with the gloriously auspicious sight of the crescent moon in conjunction with jupiter. the best things in life, no?

d up and peace out,

paulie b

last march when the columbia lions men’s five finished its third consecutive 5 – 9 league campaign, allgame was left with a profound sense of what might have been rather than one of nauseous deja vu. the penultimate weekend road sweep of brown and yale had confirmed our growing belief that the light blue could play with, and whip, anyone in the ancient eight. indeed, an early one point loss road loss to cornell, two point loss to brown at levien and a pair of heartbreakingly hard two point losses (one in triple ot at cambridge and the other in a single extra period at levien) to imperial harvard were all that stood between coach engles’s crew and the league post-season tourney. paulie b’s upbeat take on their exuberantly gritty play down the stretch was mirrored by players and staff at the team banquet on march 26. none of us could wait for the first jump ball of 2019 -2020.

beyond that late season run of success, our faith in the future was buttressed by the return of virtually the entire squad. the departure of quinton adlesh, one of three graduating seniors, was likely the biggest hit to team stats and culture, but fully 79% of the lion attack will be back in uniform come november 2019. only harvard, which returns 90% of its points, is more front loaded with scoring. the lions ought to be ready to rock.

consider our dismay, then, when various prognosticators tabbed columbia for sixth place in league play – a paltry single rung up on last year’s league ladder. had paulie b imbibed too deeply of coach engles’s banquet cool aid or am i merely too smitten with this crew’s persona to see its relative athletic worth? following are some reflections on lion personnel and bold name ivy opponents as we try to argue for a higher valuation of our heroes.

part of the short sellers’ rationale regarding the lions’ promise, no doubt, is the absence of guard (and designated clutch shooter) gabe stefanini – an early autumn scratch due to foot surgery. the junior from bologna, out indefinitely, had assumed command of the lion point last december subsequent to mike smith’s knee injury and promptly led the ivies in assists (4.1 nightly) while scoring 13.8 ppg and snagging 5 1/2 boards. that’s a significant bucket of stats and most squads would be sorely pressed to refashion their offense a few weeks before jump street.

happily, in the rehabbed mike smith, columbia regains one of the league’s best point guards. the dynamic chicagoan can get to the rim against most defenders and was showing off an improved three point shot last season before going down against bryant with a torn meniscus. his return means columbia will be substituting one second team all ivy athlete for another. smith will be complemented in the front court by patrick tape. the 6′ 10″ north carolinian is the lions’ best defender and was rapidly improving on offense as last year wound down. we think only penn’s a.j. brodeur a superior center to messr tape in the ivies, though harvard’s chris lewis and princeton’s richard ariguzoh might disagree. with the point and center well under control on morningside heights, our concern needs must turn to the rest of the rotation. the two, three and four spots will be manned by combinations of 6’3″ junior tai bibbs, 6’5″ soph maka ellis, 6’5″ senior jake killingworth, 6’6″ junior randy brumant and 6’8″ sophomore ike nweke. nweke is strictly a power forward. we expect the rest of the aforementioned quintet, who can all play guard or small forward, will be mixed and matched all season by coach engles. how quickly the incoming first years (6’2″ eddie turner iii, 6’5″ jack forest, 6’6″ cameron shockley-okeke, 6’6″ asa shannon and 6’8 emmanuel onuama) fit in with the returning core will depend on understanding their defensive obligations.

indeed, a lions visit to lavietes pavillion come march for the 2020 ivy league tournament will hinge, finally, on improved defense across the team. last year, the lions averaged 70.5 ppg, good enough for third place offensively in the ivies. unfortunately they gave up 73.5 points nightly – worst in the league by a full bucket per game and their – 3.0 ppg deficit was better only than last place dartmouth which lost by an average of 4 points per game. depending on how you count, the light blue has to prevent one made three pointer per game or two layups or give opponents four fewer free throws nightly. those goals are not so easily achievable as they sound. all require a team wide commitment to constantly alert, helping defense. i think the current edition of the lions has the length to be difficult to score against, if they defend with their feet rather than their hands. defenders have to be on the move, pursuing shooters around the perimeter and harassing them in the paint for forty minutes. last season, it sometimes seemed they played d for 28 seconds of the shot clock. those last two seconds can render the rest of a half minute’s work worthless.

when signor stefanini was healthy, i was convinced the lions would be one of the important contenders for an ivy tournament berth. indeed, i thought them a legit number three or four in the league and, with the right breaks, a dark horse for the regular season title. with the italian perhaps sidelined for the ancient eight campaign, their task becomes more difficult but i still don’t understand how less informed bloggers figure them a sixth place squad in a not terrific, to my eyes, league. only harvard, which returns the incandescent scoring guard bryce aiken (murderer of columbia in two battles last year) who will be rejoined by the now healthy former ivy player of the year seth towns and the penn quakers who feature the aforementioned, terrifically formidable, center a. j. brodeur and his returning back court complement, ryan betley strike me as somewhat stronger inside and out than columbia. princeton was the only league member to whip columbia twice last season. the tigers return four important contributors in guards jaelin llewellyn and ryan schwieger along with big men jerome derossiers and rich ariguzoh but they graduated myles stephens who was the match up nightmare for columbia in the ivies. i think the lions can pick up a win against the south jerseyans, but mitch henderson’s boys led the league in defense last year and will again be a tough nut to crack. defending champeen yale, however, must replace fully 52% of last season’s ivy leading offense. the elis’s coach, james jones, is one of the slickest killers around but he lost his two most important scorers in (now utah jazz) forward miye oni and guard alex copeland. additionally, coach jones lost trey phills (now in the nba g league) from the back court and steady blake reynolds up front. the elis’s skipper will have to get terrific defense and rebounding from forward jordan bruner – a bruising power forward- and center paul atkinson who has been very much now you see him, now you don’t in his first two campaigns with the elis. over the last decade, mr. jones has established a dependable pipeline of performers in new haven and probably has a couple of previously unheralded upper classmen ready to step up, but the lions should be a challenge for whatever rotation the bulldog skipper has settled on come league play. brown has been dependably pestilential under the stewardship of coach mike martin who conveys his own relentless combativeness to his charges. but martin lost his most dynamic scorer, desmond cambridge, to transfer and perhaps his toughest defender, obi okolie to graduation. forward tamenang choh will continue to torment the lions along with the rest of the league, but i don’t think the bruins will match last year’s 7 – 7 ivy record.

columbia has been one of the statistically hard luck teams in div 1 hoops over the first three years of coach engles’s leadership, regularly losing more close games than closing them out. these underachievements have started in the non-conference portion of the schedule. army, hofstra, navy and albany edged the light blue in 2016. likewise, they fell short in tough losses to uconn, albany (again), quinnipiac, colgate and navy (again) in 2017 while they failed close against marist, fordham, delaware, colgate (again) and rutgers in 2018. those losses haunt young athletes, in particular. non-conference play establishes a team’s identity. come january, the lions need to have had some important success in order to know how to close out the tough fights for absolutely necessary league victories. straight talk for our last take – noone in the ivies is terrifyingly good. there are two lesser teams – cornell and dartmouth. the six other crews will likely battle all season for the four spots in cambridge. the lions’ route is plain: sweep cornell and dartmouth, split with everyone else and they should be 9 – 5 and tourney bound. coach engles’s first big chance for significant ivy success has arrived. he ought not let it slip away. these lions have to turn a page and make their own luck.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

peace out and d up,

paulie b

the long suffering, desperately in need of a second Ivy League win, columbia lions men’s basketball team, rallied heroically and, down by five with less than a minute thirty in overtime, pulled out a 79 – 77 victory over the penn quakers and threw a significant wrench in steve donahue’s kids’ hopes of making the league tourney. first year maka ellis was at the heart of that frantic final ninety seconds, draining a three pointer and then, with less than a second to play, putting home a driving bank shot. sandwiched between those two scores, senior forward pete barba made the play of his career when he stole a pass and went straight to the bucket for a deuce that tied the game.  their combined heroics and the game long defensive effort of patrick tape to limit penn’s fearsome a.j. brodeur produced that much needed league win and columbia’s first at the palestra since February 2016.

so rare a feat (accomplished only five times in this century) occasioned allgame’s euphoric saturday morning and fond dreams of the sweetest possibility – a second consecutive victory.  it would have to come against the haughty princeton tigers, ever proud of their cornfield engirded campus.  to have sprung that upset would have given columbia its first road sweep of the killer p’s since I don’t know when, literally.  we require someone with a deeper record book or sharper eyes to cite that immensely rare occurrence.  let’s just say the lions played in the ncaa tournament more recently (1968) than they notched this particular road double victory.

initially pleased that devin cannady, the tigers’ leading scorer was out of the lineup, our hopes were quickly dimmed pre-game when it became apparent that messr ellis had injured himself making the game winner on friday and would sit against the tigers.  despite that anxiety, for fifteen minutes, allgame’s blessed vision persisted.  behind a couple of quick layups and a flat footed three pointer from randy brumant, gabe steffanini’s 12 points, nice (foul free) defense by patrick tape in the middle and team rebounding that frequently held the tigers to one and done possessions, columbia led 26 -21 with 4:23 remaining in the first period.  mitch henderson’s crew got hot at that point, though, and triples from myles stephens, ryan schwieger and jerome desrosiers put the princetons on top 34 -29 at the break.

messr tape dropped a jumper to bring the lions within three at the start of the second half, but, as he had in princeton’s win at levien on february 1, ryan schwieger proceeded to torch the lions.  at 6′ 6″, the sophomore guard is a matchup nightmare for the lions’ resilient, quick handed but only six foot tall, quinton adlesh. schwieger took full advantage of his length and shot 6 – 7 in the half, including all three of his triples.  with myles stephens and monsieur desrosiers punishing the lions inside and the tigers generally making 46% of their treys, schwieger and co parried a couple of half hearted pushes by columbia and defended jadwin with a convincing 79 – 61 victory.  one could argue that the game was closer than that, but I won’t.  the lions sealed their fate with miserable (27%) shooting from three point range and putridly fatal (39%) shooting from the free throw line.

that recent past is now prologue to columbia’s annual voyage to southern new england.  tonight they will tangle with the boys of brown who edged the lions 65 – 63 two weeks ago.  special attention will have to be paid to tamenang choh who has been making a habit of tormenting columbia. jake killingworth et al will have to keep the agile, powerful small forward off the boards and deny him dribble penetration.  brown’s sophomore desmond cambridge had allgame thinking, coming into the season, that he might replace cornell’s impeccable matt morgan as the league’s scoring champ.  he has not lived up to that high expectation.  though he has struggled to find his shot much of the campaign, he did drop 30 points on harvard last friday in leading his crew to an upset.  heads up backcourt defenders.  attention will have to be paid not only to cambridge but also to diminutive guard brandon anderson .  the don bosco prep product hit a couple of important buckets in that recent close run win over columbia and also grabbed a couple of disheartening steals.  his quickness can hurt at key moments and the lions will have to be alert to his whereabouts.  last, and most annoyingly, brown coach mike martin is a ceaseless whiner.  working the refs is mother’s milk to him.  we trust that who ever calls the game will ignore his constant importuning and give the visiting lions a fair shake.  the free throw differential between the two teams was fatal to columbia last go round.

saturday the light blue will face yale at the ancient john j. lee amphitheater.  this venue is poison to visitors – ill lit, with no room behind the backboards and steep bleachers crowding the floor on all four sides.  the setting will be the least of columbia’s problems.  yale’s miye oni is getting attention from nba scouts and some believe he’ll be a second round pick in a year.  he can score from outside or drive a defender to the hoop.  killingworth, brumant and ike nweke will have to take turns trying to slow him down.  trey hills and alex copeland (if he’s healthy) will also stress the lion defense.  columbia fell way behind in the second half at levien a fortnight ago before rallying furiously to tie the game late.  the offense stalled however, and yale hung on for a 70 – 64 win. james jones’s first place bulldogs are tough but can be had with some timely three point shooting and continued solid play from the steadily improving patrick tape.  the league tourney is out of reach this year, but the lions can still rattle the seedings for that event.  why aim low?  let’s get two.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

the columbia men’s basketball team traveled north two weeks ago and lost a heart stoppingly exciting game against Harvard, falling 98 – 96 in triple overtime, before continuing on to hanover, new hampshire where they managed perhaps their flattest performance of the season. the big green dropped them emphatically, 82 – 66.

returning to levien, the lions battled the southern New England ivies, and fell to Yale on friday and brown on saturday. the failure against the bulldogs followed a familiar pattern. columbia played well for the first ten minutes when Patrick tape continued his hot shooting inside and scored nine points to keep his crew tied at 20 – 20. picking up a soft second personal foul, the lion big man was removed from the line up by coach engles and over the final five minutes of the opening stanza, columbia went into one of its characteristic (of late)cold spells as the yalies went on a 10 – 5 run to craft a 35 – 25 halftime lead. out of the break, James jones’s crew continued its efficient play inside and out and moved to a sixteen point advantage with 10:12 left in the game when azar swain drained a trey. the lions suddenly emerged from their funk and, led by quinton adlesh’s eleven (of his 23) points, rallied furiously to tie the game at 62 all when gabe steffanini hit two free throws with 2:52 to play. that heroic fight back proved exhausting, though, and when alex copeland and miye one drilled jumpers forty five seconds apart, the rally was stalled and new haven’s best escaped with a 70 – 64 win.

the following night, columbia got off well and led mike martin’s brown squad by eight when maka ellis buried a jumper with just about ten minutes gone.  regardless of their relative quality, martin’s kids always manifest their coach’s combative temperament and the bruins quickly pulled within one on a triple and a layup by obi okolie and a layup and free throw by desmond cambridge.  the lions managed a short lead at the break, 27 -25. the second half was a back and forth affair with five lead changes and five ties, the last coming at 59 – 59.  the lions did most of their damage from three point range, going 10 – 23 from deep, while the visitors did theirs driving to the rim and from the foul line.  tamenang choh was  brown’s main threat.  the forward proved a bit too quick and strong for the lion front courters, getting to the rim for layups or to the free throw line, where he hit 10 -12.  overall brown enjoyed a 22 – 7 advantage at the charity stripe and though allgame would like to attribute columbia’s 65 – 63 loss to the credulous referees’s over responsiveness to coach martin’s endless whining complaints, we must admit that in truth, the final seven points from the free throw line were consequent to the lions’ need to foul every possession over the last minute.  the necessary, if water torture-y, tactic nearly worked, and the lions stayed alive but gabe steffanini’s last gasp trey, unlike his three pointer against harvard at the end of regulation, missed at the buzzer.

five weeks into the eight week long ivy league season, the lions stand uniquely last.  at 1 – 7, they trail the field and desperately need a win or three to vindicate the year’s practices and close run defeats.  allgame remains convinced that columbia is not good but hardly lousy.  no one in the league has looked way better, frankly. even imperial yale, leading the race at 7 – 1, seems less than terrific and could (should) have been had by our hapless heroes. the six remaining contests begin this friday at the palestra.  the quakers edged the light blue at levien three weeks ago, but are always very t0ugh in philly where the zebras love the hometown teams.  the lions will have to better handle a. j. brodeur than last time out if they hope to grab an upset.  saturday night, in princeton, we will be in our seats behind the lion bench at jadwin, alternately hurling abuse at the tigers and praying for a every lion shot to fall.  myles stephens poses the biggest challenge to columbia.  he is the same sort of inside presence that choh was for brown.  if the lions don’t limit him on the boards, they’re in for trouble.  devin cannady, the princeton senior who sat out the first game at levien consequent to some behavioral misdemeanor, is back in the line up and remains the tigers scoring leader at 18.2 ppg.  quinton adlesh, in particular, will have to be attentive to the no doubt fully rehabilitated princeton gunner on the perimeter if the lions are to have a real chance.  tall tasks all, for sure, but no time to quit on this campaign yet.

peace out and d up,

paulie b

buoyed already by columbia’s solid win over cornell, imagine our surprised pleasure last friday upon arriving at levien to see devin cannady observing the Princeton shoot around in street clothes. the tigers’ leading scorer and rebounder (nifty statistical double for a 6′ 2″ guard) would not be balling against the lions. our delight at the subtraction of 13 plus points and 6 plus boards from the visitors stat sheet soon faded, alas, as columbia embarked upon its worst shooting night of the season to date.

the light blue hit a preposterously lousy 11.1% of its three point shots, going a perfect 0 – 8 in the first half and an abysmal 2 -10 in the second.  this should have enough to assure a big loss, but the visiting tigers were almost equally inefficient from beyond the arc going a measly 4 – 20.  the cold shooting lions were in their deepest freeze in the first half, when the princetons forged a seventeen point lead.  during that preposterous period, coach engles’ boys missed six layups and sixteen (count ’em!) jump shots.  that kind of ineptitude bends the statistical probabilities so, that one had to think it would get better in the second half.  and indeed, out of the break the lions managed to hit a few buckets while the tigers became utter rim clangers. though warmer, they were never hot and the lions could only claw back five points of their deficit over the final twenty minutes yielding a 55 – 43 result.   as the lions shot 11 fewer free throws, the game was closer than the final score indicates – a battle of incompetence.  although myles stephens led the tigers, as we predicted he might, with 17 points and 13 rebounds, princeton’s hero was ryan schwieger who took cannady’s place and tallied 15 points.  the only lion to play near to form was patrick tape who finished with 12 points and 5 rebounds in a mere 26 minutes.  foul trouble though, as has too often been the case, kept the lion center sidelined for better than one third of the game.

that stinker set up saturday’s match versus pennsylvania.  the quakers went to the big dance last year by winning the league’s second post season tourney and we thought them a likely repeat champ.  but they lost 6′ 5″ guard ryan betley in the first game of the season, and despite whipping defending national champion Villanova back in early december, had opened ivy play with home and home losses to the aforementioned princetons and on friday night had endured the humiliation of their first loss (80 – 71) to cornell in six years. thus, they arrived at levien possessed of an 0 – 3 record and actually trailing the lions in league standings. and for the first nine and half minutes of play, they looked unimpressive as their ivy record.  some sharpshooting by guards devon goodman and antonio woods were really all they had to show against the lions alert defense which caused a couple of turnovers leading to two transition buckets from tai bibbs.  when ike nweke dropped in a layup with 10:32 remaining in the half, he completed a 14 – 2 columbia run that gave the light blue an eleven point lead.  from that height, however, the air began to leave the lion balloon.  bryce washington hit a triple while devon goodman drained a trey of his own and added a layup to the quaker counterattack.  most damaging, however, were the seven free throws the franklins hit down the first half stretch, and penn went to the locker room up by a point, 32 – 31.

the second half would be a back and forth affair with gabe steffanini starring for columbia – he would finish with 27 points and 6 rebounds – while a. j. brodeur stepped into his accustomed role of quaker supreme – tallying 18 of his 24 points over ten minutes in the period.  during that span brodeur hit six layups and drained six free throws.  it was not merely the efficiency but the manner of border’s display that deflated allgame.  the broad shouldered forward simply backed pat tape (or ike nweke or randy brumant) down, time after time, for easy attempts or a trip to the charity stripe.  when not scoring himself, he was delivering passes to teammates cutting to the backboard themselves.  steffanini gamely answered many of these scores, but the lions were fouling, again, way too frequently.  during the second period, the quakers went 11 – 12 from the free throw line while columbia missed its single attempt.  combined with their first half foul shot haul, the visitors outscored their hosts 21 -3 at the line.  ballgame over, despite some very good shooting by steffanini, adlesh and their comperes.

those two sad results in the record book, columbia now heads north to play harvard on friday and dartmouth on saturday.  the crimson were a consensus league favorite before the season started, but bryce aiken’s continued absence from the line up and offensive leader seth towns’s subsequent sidelining has made tommy amaker’s row a good deal harder to hoe.  with two stars out versus dartmouth in the cantabs’ league opener, amaker’s crew got drilled,  81-63.  with aiken playing again, the crimson avenged that defeat at lavietes pavilion but only by 64 -59.  this past weekend, though, they looked more like the winner crystal ballers expected as they whipped Yale 65 – 49 and then crushed brown 68 – 47, holding sophomore sensation desmond cambridge to but 4 points on 1 – 13 shooting from the field.  coach amaker preaches a defense first approach to the game and the lions’ limited offensive resources will be sorely taxed in the upcoming battle. the lions best league win last year was their 83 – 76 victory over harvard when columbia rallied from 15 down for an upset behind quinton adlesh’s 20 points.  columbia was fully repaid a few weeks later when the crimson throttled them 93 -74.  a curious game, because the lions shot a very respectable 39% from the three point line but were buried beneath a 61% harvard cannonade from beyond the arc.  the six more three pointers hit by the crimson accounted for the game’s final margin.  the princeton loss aside, the lions have been playing tough of late and I expect the match in cambridge to be closer this friday than last march.  truth be told,  though, i expect chris lewis to beat up on patrick tape and the harvards back court quartet of aiken, christian juzang, justin bassey and noah kirkwood to wear out columbia’s fine pair of guards, gabe steffanini and messr adlesh.

saturday will see the lions journey up to dartmouth’s hillbilly environs, where they will have a chance against the big green if they can control 6’7″ chris knight (15.6 ppg, 7.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.5 blocks) and brendan barry (13.2 ppg and 3.6 assists) while not forgetting about 6′ 8″ andrease jackson (9.1 ppg and 5.2 rebounds) who scored 24 against columbia at levien last year in Dartmouth’s close run (77 – 74) loss.  the hanoverians held off the lions in the march rematch at dartmouth when the lions’ furious rally from 19 points down came up short 80 – 78.  this season’s edition of the big green can fill it up and currently stand 16th in div i three point accuracy scoring 39.2% of their tries.  columbia will have to be Johnny on the spot defensively if they hope to bring home a victory.

the lions now stand 1 – 3 in ivy play and face their most arduous road trip of the year.  everyone will have to show up for them to split the weekend’s matches.  1 – 5 on sunday may well signal the effective end of their league campaign.  lace ’em up and fight, blue.

peace out and d’ up!

paulie b

having fallen way behind in ithaca before rallying frantically to lose by one stinking point, the lions chose a different tactical approach in their home court rematch with cornell. tai bibbs hit a layup and free throw fifteen seconds into Saturday’s ivy battle and the lions had the better of the battle for most of the evening. josh warren put the big red up 16 – 13 with 8:45 remaining in the first half, but the lions clawed to a 28 -23 halftime lead. matt morgan tied it up at 33 all at the 17:27 mark of the second period, but the lions went on their most efficient run of the game and led by eleven with 6:41 to go.  gabe steffanini, who led all scorers on the night with 24, was at his best during this spurt scoring 12 points in two and a half minutes. when the bergen catholic product had finished his work, quinton adlesh took over and tallied seven of his 21 points, the last two coming on a lovely step back jumper from the right elbow with five seconds left on the shot clock and 14 seconds left in the game. still, the outcome was uncertain until steffanini hit two free throws with seven seconds remaining, creating the 73 – 70 result that withstood riley voss’s heart stoppingly close three pointer which rimmed out as time expired.

now 1 – 1 in league play, columbia awaits the annual visit of the killer p’s. first place princeton pulls into levien on friday night followed by penn on saturday. the tigers are unlikely to be as defensively lax as cornell and they are bigger across the lineup. guard/forward myles stephens poses the greatest matchup challenges for the lions and we expect coach engles to have to run randy brumant, pete barba and maka ellis, at least, at the senior. devin candy, 19.5 ppg,  has tormented columbia since his freshman debut on morninside heights and the sharpshooting guard will be a handful. allgame was greatly encouraged by quinton adlesh’s yeoman defensive work against ivy scoring champion matt morgan on saturday night, though, and we expect him to make cannady sing for his supper. that defensive effort will have to include boxing cannady off the boards, because the guard is the tigers leading rebounder, snatching 6.2 nightly.  he is joined in the backcourt by first year phenom jaelin llewellyn.  the young virginian tallies 9.5 per contest. perhaps the most dangerous tiger guard, though, is myles stephens.  listed at 6′ 5″, he plays longer than that and at 210 lbs is a handful down on the blocks.  he averages 13.6 ppg while grabbing 6 boards nightly. this back court trio will  test the currently hot lion pair of steffanini and adlesh.  richard aririguzoh is 6′ 9″ and will be a much tougher matchup for patrick tape than the cornell front court proved.  the tiger center contributes 11 points and 5 rebounds to princeton’s exertions.  tape’s ten point, eleven rebound, five block performance against the big red was crucial in the lions’ first ivy win.  we hope he is similarly productive come saturday, but he’ll not only have to contend with messr aririguzoh.  coach mitch henderson can run 6′ 10″ will gladden at patrick.  he’ll have to contend with jerome desrosiers, sebastian much and noah bramlage as well.  so messr tape is going to need significant help from randy brumant who has been emerging as an undersized rim protector and rebounder as well as from first year ike nweke on the boards.  the matchup problem is one of numbers as well as size.  the tigers simply have more front court options than the lions and columbia will need to avoid the too frequent fouls that have undone them in a number of games already.

last february 1, the lions slaughtered a demoralized princeton at levien.  the 85 – 60 whipping was the lions best work last year and featured kyle caitlin’s finest game in blue. this go round, the tigers should be feeling frisky, fresh and eager to defend first place in the league as well as exact revenge for that defeat.  columbia has been playing tough as late and should not be an easy out for the visiting barons of south jersey.  we look for steffanini and adlesh to test the tiger defense sufficiently to keep things close, at least, most of the night.

penn will likely be looking to even it’s record at 2 -2 on saturday.  and the lions had no answer against the quakers last season.  their biggest threat remains forward a. j. brodeur.  the broad shouldered power forward leads the quakers in pretty much everything, 15.3 ppg, a heady 8 rebounds nightly, 3.5 assists and, since apparently he has the time, one and a half blocks per contest.  all this despite missing his most important  backcourt supporter, ryan betley, all season.  it was betley’s absence that hurt the franklins most in their two league play opening losses to Princeton.  the lions will certainly have more of a chance with the 6′ 5″ guard sidelined than they did last year when the quakers dropped them twice. devon goodman is only 6 feet tall and his partner antonio woods only 6′ 1.”  that gives the lions a size advantage that should help defensively.  still, the quaker duo averages 22.5 between them, so limiting will be crucial to a light blue win. patrick tape and the rest of the lion bigs will have to contain first year center 6′ 10″ michael wang from taiwan.  wang averages 10 points and 4 rebounds per game.  those numbers pretty much mirror tape’s production so a decisive winner of this matchup will probably lead his crew to victory. let’s also hope the nausea inducing ride down from ithaca saps some of the quaker spirit.

splitting the season series with cornell allows coach engles to ponder now the possible ways to play spoiler in the league, at least.  a win over one of the southern ivies will be a magnificent first step in this regard and allgame will be howling from his seat for every lion bucket, board or stop.  we said it last week and we’ll say it again.  this team is not so bad as its record.  relevance awaits!  smash Princeton!!  throttle penn!!

d up and peace out,

paulie b

since mike smith went down for the season with a torn meniscus in the game against bryant, the lions have been 2 -3.  we cannot credit the win over the decidedly earthbound soaring eagles of div iii elmira as a bead on the wampum belt.  similarly, we dismiss the late november victory against st. joe’s of brooklyn, another div iii operation.  against major foes, then, we count them 3 – 9.  a measly eleven points, however, carefully distributed over four games and they would stand at 7 – 5.  long story short, they are not good, but not so bad as they seem.

of course, the toughest part of the year kicks off this saturday when they travel (in what will likely be lousy weather) to ithaca to take on the matt morgan led big red of cornell.  just as lukas meisner’s decampment for a German professional league savaged the lion front court, power forward stone gettings’ decision to sit out the 2018 – 19 season before transferring to arizona made us think that brian earle’s charges would be easier pickings than last season.  that seems overly optimistic with messr smith now sidelined, but based on their comparative outings against colgate and delaware, the lions look to be a slightly better team.  even more encouraging for those willing to bet the lions, cornell will not be bigger than the boys in blue.  taking the average height of the eight players on each squad likely to book the most playing time tomorrow, the teams measure out identically.  we hope that patrick tape takes advantage of the cornell’s relative inexperience down low and continues to score in the paint – as well as convert free throws when fouled.  randy brumant, jake killingworth and ike nweke should be able to control the backboards.  these edges down low will hopefully offset the big red’s big advantage on the outside where two time ivy scoring leader matt morgan will make the lions’ lives miserable if they aren’t johnny on the spot attentive defensively whenever the nba hopeful has the ball.  morgan went off for 38 last week against towson and that sort of performance would probably sink columbia.  holding him to or under his usual portion of 23 points will go a long way to assuring a lion win.

the two games against cornell are columbia’s best shots at victories during the ivy campaign.  they will battle everyone else, but with smith missing they are improvising offensively.  tape has been scoring about 15 ppg since the chicagoan’s injury, but most of the three point shooters have been struggling to produce at last season’s pace.  they just aren’t getting the ball where they want it, so quickly as they want it, on the perimeter. and they are all shouldering some of the duty at point guard (though gabe steffanini has assumed the bulk of this responsibility).  last year’s most potent offense in the ancient eight is liable to be the least effective this season.  the cornell games are opportunities to over perform in this regard.  given the relative equality of the teams, they will also be good tests of coach engles’s effectiveness.  the contests will be tight and in game adjustments by engles and coach earle will be important to their denouements.  after these two battles the  lions’ trail becomes quickly difficult.  princeton and penn visit levien the first weekend of february and the killer p’s will no doubt drop the light blue.  dartmouth seems to be on the upswing and will be harder to handle than they have been historically.  brown features desmond cambridge who is the league’s signal offensive talent and the rhode islanders generally physical style of play will likely wear down our heroes.  james jones’s yale crew will no doubt display its characteristic defensive staunchness while forwards miye oni and brandon sherrod and center paul atkinson are likely to brutalize the lean messr tape and his front court mates. harvard’s guard bryce aiken remains on the sideline where he has been joined by tommy amaker’s best player, forward seth towns.  their absence allowed dartmouth to humble the league’s pre-season favorites up in concord.  though hobbled, the cantabs probably have weapons enough to whip columbia.  it could very well be that the lions will not beat any ivy squad other than cornell, all the more reason they have to win both battles with big red.

peace out and d up,

paulie b